If You've Got $350 And 2 Days, It's Really Easy To Learn How To Ride A Motorcycle

All
the riding I did was in a parking lot in the
Bronx.Alex Davies / Business
Insider

A few months ago, I decided I wanted to try riding a Vespa around
New York City. Then I learned that to ride a scooter legally in
this state, you need a motorcycle license.

And that's how I ended up making two trips to the DMV, taking
three tests, dropping $350, and spending a weekend split between
a college classroom and a college parking lot.

All in all, it was a lot of fun, especially the two-day course I
took with the Motorcycle Safety School, which is where I learned
everything I know know about motoring on two wheels.

Here's how it went down.

Step 1: Getting a learner’s permit

You need to do this, whether you want to take a course or learn
to ride on your own. It's the least fun part of the process, as
it involves a trip to the DMV.

Before going, I took a few hours to study the Motorcycle Manual, a helpful booklet that goes over
the basics like controls, proper riding gear, and rules of the
road. It also covers the things least familiar to car drivers,
like which part of the lane you should be in at any given point.

Once I got through the DMV rigmarole and sat down for the written
test, I was relieved even before I handed it in. There are 20
multiple choice questions. You can get six wrong and still pass.
Several were about the risks of drinking and driving. A few more
were about what road signs mean. One was about how to parallel
park a car.

So I got my permit.

The
riding portion of the course involves a lot of waiting, as other
students take their turns.Alex Davies
/ Business Insider

Step 2: Sign up for a two-day rider course

If you don’t know how to ride, the best way to learn and get
licensed in New York is through the two-day course with the
Motorcycle Safety School. There are locations around the city and
a few upstate. I went with a course at Lehman College, in the Bronx.
Price: $350.

Before my course, I took a two-hour introductory lesson, where we
did some very basic riding. It's not necessary for the two-day,
and is really meant to help people decide if they really want to
learn to ride.

At the two-day course, I immediately learned people who are into
motorcycles are really friendly, and each had their own
motivations for getting their license.

One woman was tired of riding on the back of her husband’s bike,
or seeing him disappear for hours on long rides. One man hated
his nearly 90-minute commute to work that involved multiple
trains and buses, but didn’t want to buy a car. Most people just
thought it would be fun to learn.

We
spent a lot of time practicing slow, standard
turns.Alex Davies / Business
Insider

Step 3: Learning by the book

The course goes from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the afternoon, both
Saturday and Sunday. It’s roughly half classroom time and half
riding time.

The classroom portion is taught strictly to the test you take on
day two. We went over things like:

The four steps in turning (slow, look, press, roll).

When you should lean left to go left - when you should lean
right to go left.

Why you always use both the front and rear brakes (and that
there’s no real risk of flipping over the handlebars if you
forget to hit the back one)

This was helpful and mostly interesting, but not nearly as
helpful or interesting as actually learning while on the bike.
And the written test, it turned out, was about as easy as the
learner’s permit.

Everyone in my course turned out to be friendly. That's
a good thing, since we had a lot of time to
chat.Alex Davies / Business
Insider

Step 4: Riding

By early Saturday afternoon, I was standing in a parking lot,
ready to ride. Students provide full-fingered gloves, over the
ankle boots, and a long sleeve shirt. The school provides helmets
and bikes. Most of us rode very well broken
in Suzuki GZ 250s. These aren't powerful bikes.

Unlike cars and scooters (in the U.S., at least), most
motorcycles use manual transmissions. There’s no need to know how
to drive a stick before taking the course (the only requirements
are the permit and the ability to ride a bike), but a basic
understanding of what a clutch and gears do will make learning
how to use them much easier.

With my instructors Danny and Brett, I learned how to ride in
logical baby steps. I began with the controls and how to start
the bike. In first gear, I learned about the most important tool
available to beginners: the friction zone.

If the bike is in gear, letting the clutch out a bit (into the
friction zone) will move it forward, just like taking your foot
of the brake in an automatic car. Even without hitting the
throttle, there’s enough power here to get the bike up to a few
miles per hour.

Once I was comfortable riding the bike using just the friction
zone, the instructors pushed me to use the throttle. Throughout
the course, they encouraged everyone to go faster and shift into
higher gears. The idea is that you won’t be riding at 10 mph once
you’re in traffic, so you had better learn how to ride faster in
a safe environment.

It’s also more fun to go fast. That goes to the heart of why we
all gave up a weekend to learn to ride: It’s supposed to be fun.
Even circling cones in a parking lot at 20 mph generates a rush.
If you don't get a rise out of it then riding probably isn't for
you.

Each exercise built on what we had learned so far in the
course, and followed a simple pattern. One instructor
explained what we would do. The other demonstrated. Then we
mounted up and tried it ourselves.

We covered shifting gears while accelerating, then engine braking
by downshifting. We did quick stops, how to swerve around an
obstacle, and what to do if there’s a two-by-four in the road
(approach at a 90 degree angle, rev the throttle just before
hitting it, and rise off the seat).

On the
U-turn portion of the test, a fellow student keeps his body
upright and turns his head in the direction he's
turning.Alex Davies / Business
Insider

Step 5: The Test

The road test was not as easy as the written exam, but it wasn’t
tough, either. There are four components: a tight U-turn, a
swerve, a quick stop, and a regular turn. Each mistake adds
points to your score. If you rack up more than 20, you fail. If
you fall off your bike, you fail immediately.

It’s hard to flunk. I ran totally outside the lines on the tight
U-turn — twice — and didn’t go into the regular turn with enough
speed. That left me with eight points, so I passed easily.

Everyone in my course passed. I got a waiver, which I took to the
DMV and exchanged for a license.

Am I Ready To Ride?

Sort of. I feel like I did after my first few lessons driving a
stick shift car — ready for the road, but not brimming with
confidence. I can operate a motorcycle; I won’t fall off or crash
if a car cuts me off. But I have zero experience riding on a real
road. Everything I know about riding in traffic comes from
classroom instruction.

If I do buy a motorcycle, I would feel ready to ride in very
light traffic and optimal conditions (daytime, dry weather). I
would also consider going back to the Motorcycle Safety School
for extra lessons.

Do I Want To Ride?

Absolutely. I learned about the risks — the course covers them
thoroughly. I learned the limits of my ability — the simple road
test drove that home. And I learned that it doesn't take anything
more than a good teacher and plenty of practice to get better.

Full Disclosure: Vespa covered our $350 course fee, and
the Motorcycle Safety
School provided the $90 introductory lesson at no
charge.